Kratie - Dolphins - Jan 22 - 25
T and I sadly leave Don Det by Mr Pao's boat to the port on the other side of the river. We have bought tickets all the way to Kratie in Cambodia. A sangthiew (the ute with benches) is waiting for us on the other side. It drives us for an hour and a halk on dusty back roads through what looks like a war zone - every tree as far as the eye can see has been bulldozed. We cannot fathom for what reason millions of acres of tree would be destroyed like this.
At the Laos border (the guards are a bit surprised to see where we've come from confirming that that road we took is not an official road to the border). They ask for $2 as it's Sunday and they have to ask for overtime. I have some fun with them saying that their boss should be paying them overtime, not the customers, and that our visa fee already covers that cost. Anyway, after some light banter, both sides agree that they have all the power and we pay (every guidebook says this is going to happen on both sides of this border). We are then taken to a small village in the no man's land between the Laos and Cambodian borders where we are told to wait for our transport to the Cambodian border. Every half an hour we ask how long til the truck comes and every time we are told 10 minutes. Almost 3 hours and several card games with the other stranded tourists later, a Camry pulls up, and all 7 of us are told to pile in. Our packs are strapped into the boot and we sit all over each other for the hour ride to the Cambodian border, through the same devastated countryside, to another set of guards who seem surprised to see us come out of where we cam out of (already on the Cambodian side, we had to actually drive BACK to the border from the shortcut we took), and we go through the overtime routine again.
We get back into the car and drive an hour and a half to Stung Trng, the closest town in Cambodia to the border. We have lunch and get into a minivan with a Spanish family and drive the 3 hours to Kratie. T and I amuse ourselves by making up stories 1 sentence at a time - one about a man who loses his turtle in the forest, injures his foot, uses the turtle shell to protect it, puts the unshelled turtle in his wetsuit filled with oxygen from his tank and uses his other tank to jet his way to the vet; and one about red riding hood who accidentally found some strange herbs in her mother's cupboard which she put in the muffins she was making for grandma, and caused havoc with the chipmunks (who had the munchies and ate their entire winter nut supply), grandma, herself, the vet, and eventually the woodsman who wasnt home but left a sign saying he was going diving and asking if anyone had seen his turtle. Great fun.
We check into a guesthouse which upgrades us to better rooms as the ones we were taking had all their locks broken. Get to typechat to Beck for the first time in a few days. The web cafes in Neal and India are not set up with cameras and headphones as they are in Laos and Cambodia. We hire a motorbike for the day to explore the temples and the dolphins the area is famous for. On the way out T gets another famous landmark - an Asian tattoo - a large burn mark on the calf from getting off the mtotrbike on the wrong side and burning herself on the exhaust. We ride to Sombo to see the Temple of the 100 pillars, When we arrive, there are children practicing on the terrace with traditional Cambodian instruments and put on a mini concert for us. Inside the temple, every centimetre is covered with colourful paintings of the lives of the various incarnations of the Buddha. The dayglo colours feel like I'm in one of the psychedelic nightclubs in Goa again, though the Buddha statues and monks bring a bit of sanctity to the place.
On the way up, I ran over a puppy. We pulled over and brought it to its owners who had a good laugh at these westerners who are so upset over a puppy - here have a 100, they seem to be saying. On the way back, I buy ballooons and lollipops to give to the kids whose puppy it was, but can;t find the house again, so give them to some other kids and trust that karma will sort it all out. We miss the turnoff to the dolphins and have to make a mad 20 minute ride back. We ride around in a boat for 40 minutes, see a few breach the surface and are told they are more active in the mornings. It's nice going for a swim after a day on the bike and dusty roads. I teach the local kids my two sticks in the hand trick, which I have been teaching kids the whols trip, especially the ones always asking you to buy something. Comes in very handy later at Angkor. T tries to call Joppe, her ex-boyfriend who she was planning to meet up with in Cambodia, but cant get through, and together with the long day and burned calf, is feeling a bit stroppy and goes to her room. I walk through the town (not much to offer apart from being near the dolphins), have dinner and go to bed.
The mext morning we begin our journey to Siem Reap and the 1000 year old lost temples of Angkor.
posted by flamethrower77 at 6:21 AM
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